Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori presents a vivid picture of Japanese culture and history. As kids read through the third chapter, they find novel-specific vocabulary to enhance their understanding and use context clues to determine their meanings. Additionally, they compare what they have learned about Japanese weddings to what they know about American weddings.

Concepts

japanese culture, Vocabulary, context clues, reading comprehension

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Additional Tags

english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Form groups for researching Japanese culture before beginning the novel, or while they read. Have each group focus on particular aspects of Japanese culture (weddings, family units, etc)
• See if kids can write their own sentences using the specific vocabulary words listed, in different contexts than they are used in the novel

Classroom Considerations

• Reading and vocabulary activity is not very engaging; consider providing additional discussion questions to keep kids involved with their reading
• Does not provide any form of assessment

Pros

• Provides interesting discussion questions for the second and third chapters of the novel

Cons

• None

Common Core

RL.7.4 RL.8.4 RL.9-10.4 RL.11-12.4